Chrysalis portfolio company Digitalsmiths acquires Gotuit

November 24, 2010

From the 11/24/2010 VentureWire: Both Digitalsmiths Corp. and Gotuit Media Corp. have patented technologies that make it easier to find, index and manage large libraries of video content, a problem that’s been growing as more people use the Internet to watch video. Now they’re going to team up, as Digitalsmiths has acquired Gotuit. Both companies […]

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David has great post on healthcare innovation!

September 29, 2010

This is from today’s PEHUBWire, which published David’s letter about healthcare innovation. Today’s guest column was written by David Jones Jr., chairman and managing director of Chrysalis Ventures. Disrupting Health Care There’s been much discussion of late about health care, including the worsening state of Americans’ health on an individual level, and the effects of recent […]

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The Matrix

August 31, 2010

One of my first posts was about trust in the digital world.  Check out this video about image manipulation.   My wife’s reaction (she’s a high school teacher) was that every teenage girl should see this video.   My reaction is that everyone should see this video.  We are all inclined to believe too much of what […]

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Twitter “Uniqueness” Score?

August 27, 2010

Is there a Twitter feature available that allows readers to provide feedback on a Tweet’s uniqueness?  I like following somewhat obscure folks but also some of the ‘rockstar’ users. I would think it would be valuable feedback to know how the audience rates the uniqueness of your tweets.  Knowing that could result in more unique […]

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Investing In Information

August 19, 2010

Many of our investments at Chrysalis focus on information, how it is accumulated and how it can be used. We value businesses that organize information and create personalized, interactive and connected information products and services that are valuable to businesses or individuals. The information value chain has been a historically rich vein for venture investing […]

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Network Owners should favor Net Neutrality

August 9, 2010

News today on Google and Verizon’s net neutrality proposal which in Verizon’s case is best interpreted as “do as I say, not as I do.” Net Neutrality is good for all participants, even the network owners.  The network owners are in the network business.  As content demands increase, consumer demands for better networks will increase.  […]

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Netflix

June 4, 2010

Here is a link to the Netflix business plan.  http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/03/netflix-business/ For entrepreneurs, a pretty good pitch deck model.  The deck clearly communicates a big opportunity in clear, easily understood language. In my home, I have a bunch of different gaming systems which give me Netflix.  I still find the streaming library limited and the search […]

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The evolution of customer acquisition (part 1)

May 14, 2010

I like to meet entrepreneurs who understand, even if loaded with unproven assumptions in their business plan, customer acquisition costs. In a business environment with 1.  no/low distribution costs 2.  scaleable variable costs due to offshoring, virtualization, cloud computing and 3. mushrooming possibilities for connecting with potential customers (telesales, e-mail, SEO, lead generation, social, etc.) […]

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Great opportunity for entrepreneurs

April 15, 2010

I link to my colleague, Matt Winn’s post, on the debate about Chris Anderson’s Free.  Matt summarized discussion aptly.  I remain more interested in the entrepreneurial opportunity which underlies Free and The Long Tail.  Free is an attention grabbing title for a book that explores all the different pricing and marketing opportunities the internet offers, […]

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Future Media Franchises

March 29, 2010

Beginning in 1898, Cox Enterprises built a highly profitable 20th century media franchise based upon initially newspaper and ultimately TV, radio, and cable companies.  These companies sustained a dominant position because they were highly defensible.  In all cases, their defensibility was defined by local geography.  Will there be media franchises of the 21st century?  What […]

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